"A true Runner ran even when he didn't feel like it, and raced when he was suppose to, without excuses and with nothing held back. He ran to win and would die in the process,running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew...hard as diamond,it made him weary beyond comprehension, but it also made him free."
-Once a Runner

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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Mixed Feelings...Wednesday 2/23 - Saturday 2/26

I hate cut back, step back, recovery, or whatever-the-hell-you-call-them weeks. I always feel terrible during them. It must have something to do with running withdrawal. I just keep telling myself that the real purpose is to pay off some of my recovery debt so I can survive March, my peak month.

Wednesday:
AM: 5 miles. After just one day off, it had felt like forever since I last ran. Just about everything was hurting at one point or another, hips, knees, ankles, shins.

PM: 8 miles. Despite the snow on Tuesday, the city was quite clear which was nice. The insides of both my ankles and my lower shins were pretty sore after this one. I had first felt this at the end of my long run on Sunday.

Thursday:
AM: 6 miles w/ 3 @ marathon pace. I ended up doing this one a little too fast. My legs felt a little fresher than I was expecting: 5:59 pace. I'm really shooting for about 5-10 seconds per mile slower. However, I wouldn't be alarmed by 6:00 miles during my goal marathon. My right ankle was largely ok, but the left was still feeling quite tender.

PM: 7 miles, hilly. That pesky left ankle still hurt. I officially retired my trainers after this run. Overall, the pain was consistently more manageable in my racing flats. Of course, it never really hurts while running, only when I stop.

Friday:
11.5 miles with 2x3 miles @ tempo pace. It was late, 8pm, windy, and I worked for 12 hours with most of it being on my feet. There was also apparently a down tree branch on Druid Hill Lake that I could not see and tripped over more than a few times. Despite everything, I still hit the paces I needed.

1.5 mile splits: 8:29, 8:21 8:29, 8:24 roughly 5:38 pace.

A bit less taxing than 6 miles straight, the goal of the workout was to get a feel for the pace I want to run for my upcoming 10 mile race Sunday. I think I'm locked in, though my left ankle afterward.

Saturday:
12 miles, moderate pace. I woke up with continued pain in that left ankle, though it still disappears immediately when I start running. By mile 10 I was feeling real strong and hit the last 2 really hard to see how my ankle would respond. As I write this after the 12 miler, my ankle feels the best it's been all week!

It looks like I've survived this mini-taper without driving myself completely insane, just a little bit. Now it's time to get down to business for that 10 miler tomorrow. It's going to be a challenging course and I will have good competition. My main goal for this race is to hit the first mile at around 5:40-5:45 pace and just hold on from there. I'd rather run out of gas and blow up than go out conservatively and run negative splits. I've done one too many negative split races in this range and always feel like I had too much energy at the end.

To sum up my race strategy, I will quote the Foo Fighters:

"What if I say I will never surrender?"
If I get through mile 6 alive (this should be possible based on training splits), the last 4 are going to take some digging, but I will not give in! I will trust in my tempo training to drag my butt across the line in hopeful PR fashion.

1 comment:

I went to Lake Montebello yesterday afternoon and laughed at how dumb that was before giving up and running near my apartment (which wasn't much better). The wind made me feel like I was going to actually blow away.

Glad that ankle is feeling better. I get the same thing -- stuff aches and hurts EXCEPT when I'm actually running. Of course, your mileage is way up there so that's to be expected.